Finch on Magnolia Branch

In designing his prints of birds and flowers, Hiroshige seems to have been influenced by the work of Shijō school artists, who produced paintings in a spontaneous, simplified manner. Here, for example, the block carver captured the rapid manner in which Hiroshige rendered the slender branch, and the boneless (without outlines) way he depicted the leaves. The lyrical freshness of this style accords well with the buoyant mood of the poem; Delightful! After the cherry blossoms, the magnolias.